The Wayfare Series
The Wayfare Series takes place on the world of Faraland, starting in the Avaleen region. Avaleen, the Aural Realm : Avaleen is part of the northern landmass of Faraland, World of Seven Magics, nestled between the frozen Har'Mon and the forested Wilderwoods. The region resembles much of a medieval world, with technology and development rising sharply in certain countries. : Of Avaleen, there are six civilized races: *Dwarves *Elves *Fae *Giants *Humans *Kobolds : Across these races, they all share a similar method of magic called Auralism. Each race has a different average level of affinity across it's population, the naturally stronger types have achieved practices that extend beyond what the method is normally capable of. ---- : Of the races, the Humans are the most plentiful. Followed by Kobolds, Dwarves, Giants, Elves, and finally Fae. : Humans take up the greatest amount of land in Avaleen and have established multiple countries over their history. Due to their population size, it is hard to generalize the attitudes of their kind. The most prevalent trend is the fact they rapidly expand their territory and have no qualms over fighting between nations. : Kobolds possess and interesting type of civilization. These beings live in the nooks and crannies of more industrious races, like Human and Dwarf civilization. They survive through scavenging and looting useful materials in what their host race throws out. : Dwarves make up the third largest population. These beings are absent from the surface, but have constructed an extensive realm underneath Avaleen's mountain range. To visit some of their locations leaves some in awe at how spacious they've constructed the underground. Poetically, some may say the mountains are merely the crowns of the Dwarf kingdoms, placed atop their brow. : Giants are a relatively uninteresting race. Their population occupies only one territory wedged between a Human nation and at the foot of the Dwarves mountains. They tend to keep to themselves and are not aggressive to their neighboring races. Within their bounds, Giants do have some more physical and rough traditions that can make the smaller and weaker races feel a little uneasy. : Elves, of all the races, are the most hostile. This second-to-smallest race live in only a few widely-scattered city-nations. The cities pf the Elves are located within the forests, not because they are tree-huggers, but because they utilize the woods themselves to form formidable defenses. They fiercely guard their home by any and every means necessary. Proof of their defensive prowess lies in one anecdotal story about how a Human army was on the march and their path was going to cut right into the Elves' home. The results were not pleasant, but well remembered by the Humans. : The smallest race of all in Avaleen is that of the Fae. Technically, the race is one being, split among several bodies and filtered through each body's mind, very much a kind of hive-mind. Whenever a new member of their kind is to be born, it is created by pouring a little bit of the essence of every individual into a new one. As for their location, the home of the Fae lies out of sync with the rest of the world. It takes up a physical space, but the only way to get their is by not trying to enter. ---- : Auralism allows the practitioner to type into the various elements, focusing on states of matter. *Plasma; Fire, Lightning *Gas; Air *Liquid; Water *Solid; Earth, Metal, Sand : From these four elemental families, the magic then branches out into four techniques. *Attack *Defense *Construction *Manipulation : Attack and Defense are based more on the pure, magical energies of Auralism. Construction and Manipulation focus more on the material in the world. Attack and Defense use elementally tuned attacks and defenses, respectively, to aid the caster in combat. Construction is the focus of creating matter from large amounts of raw Aura energies to create various objects, traps, even rudimentary robots/golems. Manipulation pours a little bit of Aura energy into pre-existing matter (or spells) and directing them to one's whims. While the last technique may seem the most effective at conserving Aura energy, it costs much in the stress and strain to redirect the selected matter.